The Brooklyn Horror
by Anonymonimus
Summary: Bucky has no money for a place in Brooklyn considering he's an unemployed legally dead super assassin. It's just his luck that one falls into his lap, literally, in the form of a screaming blood covered girl tossing her keys at him while he was napping in an alley. PROMPT FILL
1. Chapter 1

A thick rain veiled Brooklyn and Bucky could hardly keep himself dry even under the makeshift shelter he had found in some dirty alley way. He had spent weeks trying to find information on the man he had been before HYDRA, the man Captain America knew him to be. The most he remembered thus far had been in terms of his birth – he knew he was born in New York City where he had spent most of his early life. But that was all he could recall. No matter how hard he tried to evoke the memory of Steve Rogers, he failed. Bucky was starting to wonder if Captain America himself hadn't lied to him like HYDRA had in order to manipulate him as well.

Bucky sighed and glanced out the alley way. There was too much water in the streets – so much so the drains overflowed. The assassin hoped the downpour would stop soon. Living like a rat in the shadows was difficult and terrible weather conditions were of no help. Bucky supposed it was about time he find himself a place to live. He _had_ seen abandoned houses.

 _But only when the rain stops._ He thought to himself.


	2. Chapter 2

Bucky hadn't realized he had fallen asleep until he woke up. His eyes fluttered open and he saw that the rain had stopped. It was still dark outside. The clouds in the sky had cleared, revealing a big, shining disk he knew to be the moon. Slowly, he got to his feet with a groan and winced as his bones cricked and cracked. He sighed and stretched, revealing a few of the lingering kinks before deciding to make his way out.

However, Bucky hardly managed to take his first step when the sound of hurried footsteps found their way to his ears. A woman suddenly stumbled in front of the alley, breathing heavily and looking like a bigger mess than he himself. She was completely soaked, her hair stuck to her skin and the dark stains on her were likely blood as she smelled of it. Her gaze landed on him agitatedly and she let out a blood curling scream while falling to the ground.

"Get away from me, you demon!" She shrieked and threw something small and silver at him. "Get away!"

She scurried away in horror and Bucky took her keys. An address tag hung off the ring.


	3. Chapter 3

The house at the address was located next to a cemetery not all that far where Bucky had fallen asleep earlier. It stood eerily in the night. A large, dead tree was planted firmly on the front lawn and housed a hooting owl with glowing yellow eyes. It watched him attentively as Bucky took a couple of steps closer and glanced back at the keys he held before looking behind him. He wondered if the woman would return or if she had abandoned her house. He supposed he would find out once he walked in.

A violent gust of wind spontaneously hit and the light provided by the moon disappeared as dark clouds returned with rain. Bucky walked into the house before he got too wet. The halls were dark and he hesitated to wander in further lest the woman returned. He decided he would stay by the front door and wait for the morning to come. If the woman came back, she could shoo him out of her house rather than get scared by finding him in an unexpected room.

Bucky glanced back at the dark hall and stared into the abyss briefly. He could swear he heard whispers.


	4. Chapter 4

Morning came and the woman was nowhere to be found. Bucky sat by the door he kept open and waited, scanning the neighbourhood and occasionally observing what little he could see of the cemetery. He now debated whether he should find himself a different place to squat until he got some of his memories back or he decided whether he would find Steve Rogers for help. As far as he was concerned anyways, the woman wanted nothing to do with the house otherwise she wouldn't have thrown her keys at him.

So Bucky got to his feet and decided to explore the house. The place was a bit broken but the Depression-era decor was to his liking. It brought back a nostalgic feel; one linked to what little he remembered about living in Brooklyn in the 40s. Other than the house being a bit dirty with dust, debris, and the occasional blood stains, it was a rather cozy environment. He would make it his own and if anyone with legal ownership of the establishment or property came to boot him out for whatever reason, than he would go. Until then, the eerie house next to the cemetery was his home.


	5. Chapter 5

There was a vegetable garden in the house's small backyard. It was the only place where plants didn't seem to die instantly. A lot of food grew in the small space and Bucky found he could eat to his fill without needing to go through the hassle of stealing. What's more was that whatever he took from the plants seemed to grow back over night. As strange as it was, he never sought to question it. A part of him thought it might even be his doing seeing as he did take care of the garden to the best of his abilities. Maybe he just had a really amazing green thumb.

Regardless, a week had gone by and Bucky heard nothing from the woman or possible landowners of the property. He supposed the house was as good as his and began to make himself more comfortable by adjusting things to his liking. He began by cleaning every inch of the old house to a dazzling shine then by placing all the scattered objects, mostly books, where they belonged. Peculiarly though, Bucky would still frequently find objects he put in one place in another without having any memory of moving it.


	6. Chapter 6

The nights at the house were strange. It was the summer but sometimes Bucky would find that the room in which he slept became abnormally cold for an inexplicable reasons. In fact, it would often get so cold that he could see his breath. There were also the strange instances of hearing a plethora of muffled whispers that would recurrently interrupt what little sleep Bucky managed to get. And after a week of dealing with the quiet noise, random cold spots, and misplaced objects, he was thoroughly annoyed. He would have moved out had he been certain he could have found a decent and already furbished house.

 _I guess it's better than the cryo chambers…_ Bucky told himself as he cleaned the basement.

The basement was likely the dirtiest place in all the house that still needed a lot of work even after a week. There were many boxes scattered around and filled with a lot of relics from varying time periods – many of which were from the 20s. Bucky crouched down to pick up a box when he felt a pair of hands shove him to the ground. When he turned to see the culprit, he found no one.


	7. Chapter 7

Bucky found a box filled with newspaper articles when he was pushed into the pile of boxes again a day later. The yellowed papers were all linked to events having occurred in the house – most of which were gruesome murders if not strange happenings. The oldest article detailed a family of five having lived and died in the house, killed by the father who had gone insane. Other papers told stories of people fleeing the house within a month after moving in while others mentioned more murders. Bucky even found a few crime scene pictures taped with some of the newspaper clippings.

He sat back for a moment and huffed. _Well, that explains a lot._ He thought to himself.

Believing ghosts were real wasn't that difficult for him to accept. He had read about Thor and Steve Rogers's friendship in the D.C. exhibition so if Gods could exist, why not ghosts? Bucky put the papers and pictures back into the box and moved it to the side. He would do more research on his undead roommates later, when he finished cleaning the basement for that day. Bucky hoped to find a way to deal with or get rid of them.


	8. Chapter 8

It was dark out and the moon's light shone through the window of Bucky's appropriated room. He woke up slowly without knowing why until he realized just how cold his room had become. He sighed and reached over for the blanket he had kicked off just before falling asleep when he began hearing trembling moans and whimpers just next to him. Bucky glanced to the right side of his bed and found a woman standing but twitching madly in bloody and torn rags. Her hair was messy and covered most of her face.

He blinked at her and looked around with confusion. Bucky's memory was still very limited. He didn't know much about ghosts other than they were the souls of those who had passed. Nonetheless, the problem remained that Bucky wasn't exactly sure how to get rid of the woman. The Winter Soldier would have shot her dead but not only was he not that man anymore, he wasn't sure it would be effective.

Bucky settled on grabbing the extra pillow next to him and throwing it at the woman. It went right through her and she vanished as such. With that done, he went right back to sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

After looking through the newspaper clippings and pictures again, Bucky concluded Jennifer Donnelly had been the ghost to have bothered him the night before. She had supposedly committed suicide in the house after her husband had eloped with another man. For that reason, she seemed to only bother the men in the establishment – or so he concluded from the victims' testimonies.

And after a bit more research, Bucky also learned that there were, at the very least, sixty different spirits haunting the house some of which were obviously more violent than others. He didn't really care, however, as long as they weren't the biggest pain in the ass, he would cope. Seeing as he didn't know much of the nature of ghosts, part of him assumed this sort of behaviour was natural and couldn't be helped. This being said, he still wondered if there was a way he could convince them not to bother him when he was trying to sleep. As it was, Bucky learned it was far easier for him to remember his lost memories when he slept more than when he did other things. It was important to his recovery and he hoped the dead would understand.


	10. Chapter 10

Upon the night's return, Bucky waited patiently in his room for a ghost to appear. He assumed he could convince one of them to deliver the message to all the others – it would be far more convenient that way. It wasn't long before the temperature dropped drastically and he could see his breath appear and fade inches from his face. He shifted in anticipation while he waited when worry suddenly struck him.

How exactly did one speak to the dead?

Was there a formal way of addressing them? Bucky was obviously going to be polite, but he wondered if there was a protocol he didn't know of that was necessary.

A ghost then appeared before him. It was a man this time, dressed as though he emerged from the 40s with a few limbs and other pieces missing.

"Hello, sir…?" He tried awkwardly. Bucky also noticed his voice was a bit weak and gruff from being unused. "Would you…mind stopping? Your actions are…troublesome."

The man began to twitch just like the woman had. His face flickered in degrees of visibility as he began to moan, groan and whimper. Then he screamed and disappeared. Bucky would have to try again tomorrow.


	11. Chapter 11

Bucky made his way to the bathroom when morning came. The sun hadn't risen completely yet but the light it made was still enough not to necessitate electricity which he tried to conserve as much as he could. He turned the creaky nobs of the sink and splashed some of the water on his face. After a moment he stared at his reflection in the mirror, reckoning his stubble was quickly becoming a beard. He wondered if the woman that had thrown him the keys had lived alone and, on the chance she hadn't, if a man had also been present. Maybe he would have left shaving products behind.

Bucky was just about to open the bathroom cabinet to see when the silhouette of someone standing behind him in the mirror caught his eye. He paused and stared back at the shadow but when it did nothing, he continued with his action. He looked through the cabinet and thankfully found what he needed. When he looked back in the mirror, the silhouette was closer but still did nothing. And every time Bucky glanced back at the apparition, it got closer. He wondered if the thing was trying to scare him.


	12. Chapter 12

The spirits had officially pushed Bucky's patience to the limit when they started making blood drip from the walls and ceiling. They had consistently woken him up every single night for two weeks, made messes when he either slept or was out of the room, and spent an uncomfortable amount of time watching him when he was in the bathroom. In addition to all that, he now had to clean up the blood they left behind which was the worse because it was difficult. Blood stained and it was practically impossible to wash it all out unless done so immediately.

In any case, Bucky was just about ready to try to exterminate the ghosts haunting the house. He had given them more than enough chances and he simply had to put his foot down. They were just troublesome and, worst of all, slowing his memory recovery. No books in the house detailed how to deal with ghosts and so he would have to go to a library, a computer café, or something. A part of him felt bad for deciding on said course of action. The newspaper articles basically stated that the house had been theirs in the first place.


	13. Chapter 13

Bucky went to the library because it costed nothing to look at books and then leave without purchasing them. As it was, he had no money whatsoever – not even a dime, though he was doing just fine except for the ghosts. He scouted through the long isles of books, unsure what type of titles he should be searching for when a young woman approached him.

"Hello, can I help you find anything?" She asked.

Bucky looked her over and considered his words before speaking. It had been a long time since he had actually spoken to someone – well, someone alive.

"Yes." Came the awkward and stiff answer.

"What do you need?" She offered with a kind smile.

"Things on ghosts." Bucky said.

The woman seemed surprised. "You mean horror stories or some non-fiction documents?"

"Lore." Bucky offered, "Information on how to get rid of them."

"Are you experiencing a haunting?" She teased.

"Yes." Bucky admitted and she seemed taken aback by the seriousness of his tone.

"Right…" She said slowly and led him to a different isle, "You've got a lot to choose from here. I don't know if there's anything you're looking for but this is the non-fiction section."


	14. Chapter 14

Most of the books found detailed the real life stories of supposed victims of hauntings. Bucky had struggled to find anything other than that but, luckily, he stumbled upon an odd, black book of the supernatural. It contained a great deal of information on ghosts and also had a lot of spells scribbled on pages. After skimming through it, Bucky had deduced it would be of great used to him and opted to steal the book because he wasn't going to remember everything.

When he returned to his home, the spirits had gone a wonderful job of utterly trashing the place and Bucky sighed deeply. He was going to have to clean before he could think of getting rid of his annoying roommates. Afterwards, he would read the book he stole more attentively. He vaguely recalled a section specifically on the extermination of pesky ghosts and supposed it was something he could tackle first.

Regardless, he got to work on cleaning the scattered books, cups, knives, and other random objects. To his greatest frustration, Bucky also discovered they had made the walls bleed again on the second floor. There was no way there wouldn't be a lasting stain that time.


	15. Chapter 15

It was night when Bucky began scribbling down the spell glyphs on the timber ground with some wood coal he found in the fireplace. The book offered a multitude of ways to rid oneself of ghosts and he had opted for the one that seemed the easiest and simplest. The lines he drew on the ground may have been slightly crooked and messy but at least he didn't have to go find a young virgin to sacrifice or locate holy relics for an exorcism.

The ex-assassin took a step back and cleaned the black dust from his hands quickly before taking the book in his hand. He read the next steps which consisted of placing a small pile of salt in one of the drawn circles and proof of the haunting in the other – for which he used a bloodstained piece of wall paper. After completion he recited the spell. The black lines on the ground began to glow and a wild wind picked up as Bucky continued to speak the written words. Loud moans and shrieks of the spirits haunting the house filled the room and the light quickly became blinding when, all of a sudden, everything went black.


	16. Chapter 16

Bucky couldn't even see his hand regardless of it was in front of his face what with the thickness of the veiling abyss. He stood dumbly for a short moment, wondering if the ghosts were gone and the spell had succeeded, when a small blue flame appeared in the largest circle he had drawn on the floor. The light danced, hovering inches above the ground, and Bucky wondered how it sparked when it suddenly spoke.

"Who has summoned me?" A deep voice echoed from the flame.

It seemed slightly angry.

"Um…me." Bucky said, taking an awkward step forward.

"Who are you?" The blue flame asked.

"I…I don't know." Bucky admitted with melancholy, "Not yet at least."

"Is this why you've come to me?" It asked.

"Um, no, that was an accident." Bucky said, "I was trying to get rid of you and the sixty others."

"How dare you!?" The flame snapped and suddenly became bigger.

"I don't mind keeping you around if you stop being so annoying." Bucky said, "I mean, you guys aren't the only ones living here."

"Are you trying to control the dead, then?" It asked, a bit calmer.

"More like come to an agreement." Bucky suggested.


	17. Chapter 17

The ghosts weren't so bad after all – nor was the demon he had spoken to either. They seemed bewildered by the fact that Bucky didn't even remotely fear them and, in turn, he was confused by why they thought he should feel that way. Perhaps it was because the woman who had thrown him the keys had been utterly terrified. Whatever it was, it didn't matter because he had made a deal with the ghosts. He mostly just convinced them to act civilly and clean the messes they made as well as stop the wall bleeding because it was the biggest hassle to clean. Bucky also told them about why he needed to sleep more than to rest his body and schooled some of the ghosts that had come yell at him in the middle of the night. In return, he wasn't allowed to complain or try to cleanse them from the house.

With that meeting done, the spirits were generally less shy in making their presence known. Bucky would often see objects randomly float around or shadows move about where they shouldn't necessarily. From then on, however, the objects would always find themselves back to where he liked them.


	18. Chapter 18

Bucky lived peacefully with the spirits of the house in Brooklyn for nearly two months. By then he had recovered a lot of his memories though an even greater amount remained lost in the mess H.Y.D.R.A. had made of his mind. He had a better grasp of who he had been and who he now wanted to be again rather than continue on the path of the Winter Soldier. Then, one day, someone came knocking at his door.

The ghosts tried to scare the stranger away but utterly failed. And when Bucky took too much time to answer the door, the visitor decided to push it open and walk in regardless of how rude it may have seemed.

"Hello?" He called and Bucky stiffened at the sound of the familiar voice.

"S…Steve?" He said as he walked towards the front door.

"Bucky!" Steve shouted and ran to him. He stopped a foot away even if it seemed to pain him, "Are you…do you remember me?"

"Sort of…you punk." Bucky smiled.

A smile appeared on Steve's face as well and he finally ran the rest of the way to Bucky. Taking his best friend in his arms in a long embrace.


End file.
